


Lullaby

by amoeve



Series: Zutara Month 2015 [8]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Duet, F/M, First Kiss, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 20:31:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5389235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amoeve/pseuds/amoeve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s still First Kiss Week here on Amoeve’s Zutara Month, but this time, with fluster and singing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lullaby

The music drifts through the house, lilting and lovely, elegant phrases and echoing pauses as if it’s something well-known, well-loved, half-forgotten. 

Zuko hadn’t even remembered that there was a music room here. It reels him in, a very soft spell like a memory of warmth, because he recognises the tune but cannot place the words.

He turns the final corner and sees in the slice of light pouring from the doorway that Katara is sitting at a _yangqin_ , tapping out patterns on the strings.

_Where do you go while I wait here?  
Where have you wandered in your sleeping?_

She pauses, and he hears her muttering to herself. He tries to inch the door open a little, and sees her frowning in concentration, weighing the yangqin hammers in her hands. She rings out a few notes, nods to herself, and starts the phrase again. 

_Where do you roam, my love most dear,  
when your heart’s here in my keeping?_

_Pick apart the wishful sighs  
and give me words I can believe in._

The door slips from his hand and creaks open, and she startles in the middle of the refrain. “Oh, Zuko,” she says, setting the hammers down. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to play without your permission – ”

He smiles at her, because she looks so flustered. “I don’t mind. It’s not like I’d be playing it instead.”

Her smile is rather shy. “Oh. Well. Thank you.” She runs her fingertips over the strings. “My mother taught me how to play, but… after she died, I couldn’t bring myself to practise. I don’t even know where her _yangqin_ is.” She starts to rise from her seat, and the words just fall out of his mouth:

“Don't stop. You have a lovely voice.” He hears what he’s said, and adds, hastily, “And, uh, anyway, I’m not sure I know the words.”

Katara blushes and stares at him. “Oh, but… it’s a love song, I mean, should I – ”

He feels his face warming. “Oh, well, I mean… in the Fire Nation, it’s a lullaby.”

“Oh!” She bites her lip. “Well, good. I mean, I wouldn’t want to put you to sleep.” And she turns back to the hammers and starts picking out the tune again. 

_And do you take you with me, dear,  
when longing tempts you into leaving?_

And now she sings it, he hears how it’s not just a song about soothing someone to sleep. It’s something simple, and sweet, and it probably shouldn’t make him feel this sad sense of longing.

_When springtime warms your face, my love,  
will you cease your long night’s dreaming?_

She stops, abruptly. “I, um. I don’t remember the rest. Though there’s a line about a maze, I just don’t recall...”

He can remember a voice singing it, very faint and far away, and wonders who it was: his mother? His nurse? “I think… the next bit…”

She plays the melody again, and the words rush back to him, like steam out from under the lid of a boiling pot. He panics, for a second, about singing in front of her, because, well, she sings like she’s spinning out his soul, but – 

_When you walk this maze of moments,  
tell me what is real, or seeming._

_For though you wander in the dark  
you will come back with sunlight’s gleaming._

And then he realises she’s singing with him, and there’s a harmony he never knew, and – she freezes, and stares up at him. 

“Zuko,” she says, sounding faintly stunned. “Your _voice_ …”

He gapes at her. He’s never been admired for his singing voice – but then, he’s never wanted to sing in front of anyone before. 

The door slams open. “You two are so _cute_!” Toph crows, and Suki follows her in, adding, 

“And good. Really good! Sing it again!”

“Oh, no, I’m out of practise – ” Katara starts.

“I can’t, not in front of people!” Zuko panics – and doesn’t miss the confused looks that Suki and Toph shoot him. “Katara doesn’t count,” he adds, hastily, and then realises he’s dug himself one impressive hole when Toph starts cackling with glee. “I mean, obviously she counts as a _person_ ,” he tries again, and he looks at her, helplessly. 

She looks amused, and annoyed, and there’s something there he can’t quite place – a warmth that wasn’t there before. 

“I am bored,” Toph announces. “Entertain me, or I’ll tell Suki how fast your hearts were beating.”

“What?” he splutters, and hears Katara exclaim at the same time. 

He turns to flee to the sound of Toph’s laughter, and Katara’s protests. As he reaches the door, he hears Suki’s very matter-of-fact “So now he’s gone, you have to tell us everything.”

Inwardly kicking himself, he darts back into the room, grabs her by the arm and drags her out into the corridor. 

“Ow! Zuko, get off!” She pushes at him. “Now they’ll definitely be suspicious!”

“I’m sorry,” he says, “I just… I couldn’t leave you in there. Even though they probably think – they – ” he stops when he realises that was a bit of a stupid move, really. 

“I’d, um. Better go back in and explain.” Katara’s cheeks are still faintly flushed. “But thanks for thinking of me.” And she stands on tiptoe to press a kiss on his cheek, and his hands automatically come up to grasp her upper arms.

She stares at him, eyes like the sea after a storm.

He looks at her, and looks at her lips, still pursed, and parted in – confusion? Is she going to say something?

He kisses her, quick and illicit and very soft, and then turns around and sprints away and climbs out of the window. 

“Katara, I felt your heartbeat speed up!” he hears Toph squawk, and he decides Katara’s on her own this time. 

He goes to cool down on the roof. 

Exactly four minutes later, her head pokes over the parapet. “I froze Toph and Suki to the music room floor. I hope that’s okay.”

He tries not to feel hopeful. “As long as the _yangqin_ is safe.”

Katara clambers up on to the roof. “Actually… I brought it with me.” And she rests it in her lap. “I, um. I wondered if we could sing again?”

Even in the twilight, Zuko can see that she’s blushing. “I’d like that,” he says. But he takes it out of her hands and sets it down a little way away. “Though…”

She raises her head. “Yeah. I mean if we start singing now, they’d find us,” she says, and she’s tangling her fingers in his hair. 

“Exactly,” he agrees, quite seriously, and he can’t stop looking at the moon reflected in her eyes.

She tugs him forward so sharply that they overbalance and end up tangled on the gabled roof.

“This is better,” she murmurs, but she kisses him before he can agree with her. 

It is.

**Author's Note:**

> “Eyes like the sea after a storm” is also a line from _The Princess Bride_.
> 
> *
> 
> I thoroughly enjoyed listening to _yangqin_ music while I wrote this! Though the tune of the song works more like a Western folk song or ballad, something simple and repetitive.
> 
> Uh... yes, I sketched out a song for a fic. Why do you ask? >.>


End file.
